Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1402 Soon to Be Possible (4k)

"This vehicle is still a bit lacking..." A comrade sighed to the comrade next to him, looking at the CA10 struggling to operate on the Gobi Desert, his tone tinged with regret.

There's no way around it these days; the only heavy trucks we can truly be proud of are these kinds of things. Let alone the rockets that are only about 6 meters long on the truck now, even the 10-meter-long S-75 copy is still towed by this thing, making it even longer than a semi-trailer from decades later.

"Just get through this, it'll be alright. The important thing now is the egg on top," another comrade said with a smile.

To save weight, this vehicle only carried four 270mm rockets. If Gao Zhendong saw it, he would have a feeling of nostalgia for the Export-80, which also carried only four 273mm rockets. As for why it was called the 80, the reason is simple: its range is 80 kilometers.

However, the rockets on this vehicle were much more elegant than the export-grade Type-80 rockets that Gao Zhendong knew from his previous life. At least because of the clever and effective folding and spinning design, the rockets and the directional tubes of this rocket launcher were almost touching, so the four tubes side by side looked somewhat sparse. After all, if they were all squeezed in the middle, the width would be less than one or two meters, which looked strange no matter how you looked at it.

If they are placed sparsely, they are less likely to interfere with each other.

If we install any more, it's not that there's not enough space, but rather that the load capacity is exceeding the limit. This thing doesn't just have the pipes themselves; it also has a pitching mechanism inside.

The comrade who just mentioned the missiles has woken everyone up. We're starting a series of final tests now, which doesn't mean we haven't fired them before. Judging from past experience, these things are better than expected.

Thinking of this, the comrades from the Army Equipment Bureau laughed. Four sticks it is, the key is that these four sticks really work!

The Long March 130 rocket, with a range of 25-40 kilometers, proved its capabilities in recent combat. Now, it's the turn of the 270 rocket.

As he laughed, he said to the chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Committee, "This thing has a long range and a slightly wider dispersion. It would be a waste to build a firing range on the black soil of Northeast China. We have no choice but to ask you comrades to come here. The conditions are tough, so please bear with us."

There's plenty of wasteland in the Northwest, so building a firing range isn't a big deal, unlike the black soil of the Northeast. Otherwise, this problem could have been solved near the Snow City test center, instead of having to travel so far.

"How difficult can this be? Compared to... hehehe, it's pretty good anyway. The important thing is this bomb." The chief engineer said halfway and then swallowed his words.

"Alright, shall we get ready to begin?" said the comrade from the Land Equipment Bureau, watching the second and third rocket launcher vehicles also slowly enter the position.

"Okay, let's begin!" The other comrades nodded in agreement.

"Automatic mode test, now begin! Target number 1, aim!" The test commander picked up the radio and began issuing orders.

Inside the three rocket launcher vehicles, the co-drivers were methodically and efficiently inputting the coordinates of target number 1.

As for meteorological data such as wind speed, wind direction, and temperature, they are transmitted back from the front by armored reconnaissance vehicles deployed in the forward positions and automatically entered into the ballistic computer of each vehicle for calculation.

The input and calculation speeds were very fast, and soon the voices of the vehicle commanders could be heard over the radio.

"Car number 3 is ready!"

"Car number 1 is ready!"

"..."

The comrades, who were always competing with each other, were unwilling to fall behind even in experiments.

The key comrades in the test command post looked at each other and nodded.

"Launch all missiles!" the test commander issued the order over the radio.

The vehicle's full-launch capability looks rather meager, with only four missiles, and the full-launch capability is hardly impressive, but the noise level is still quite high. After all, compared to a 270mm munitions missile, even the Long March 130mm rocket with a range of 25-40km has a significantly smaller propellant load.

Almost simultaneously, amidst the roar of flames, 12 270mm rockets spun and leaped out of their launch tubes, heading straight into the distance.

"Wait a bit, it's a long way to go." The factory's chief engineer arrived and smiled at his colleagues. He was very experienced; this thing had an extremely long range and would take several minutes to fly there.

"Hopefully there won't be any problems," the chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Committee murmured.

Although numerous experiments have been conducted during the research process, it is not uncommon for problems to arise during the normal finalization of the research. Without a finalized model, the future remains unknown.

"Don't worry, boss, we're confident," the factory worker said with a smile. They had fired countless rounds during their own research and development process, and they were certain that this technology from Chief Engineer Gao was reliable!

As if to confirm his words, shortly afterward, a report came over the radio about the anti-battery radar deployed between the position and the firing range.

"Report! The rocket's flight path is normal and consistent with expectations. No stray rockets have been detected."

For counter-battery radar, determining whether a rocket's flight is normal is a piece of cake. After all, rocket artillery these days follows parabolic trajectories, so if you can calculate the gun position, you can also know whether the trajectory is basically normal.

Counter-battery radar is not only capable of countering artillery fire, but can also serve its own artillery.

The comrades all breathed a sigh of relief. There were no stray bullets, which was the best news. To put it bluntly, even if they all missed, as long as they all missed in the same place, it was still a victory. At worst, they could just adjust the aiming point in the computer to make it look off.

The fact that the bullets fired from all three vehicles flew in the same direction further demonstrates that the trajectory of this technology is stable and highly repeatable.

"Rocket flight is normal..."

Similar reports kept coming in from the counter-battery radar. The comrades' expressions became more and more relaxed. The characteristics of the parabolic trajectory meant that if it was still normal at this point, it wouldn't be easy for it to be abnormal.

A few minutes later, the comrades at the firing range heard a whooshing sound approaching from afar, rumbling towards them.

On a hilltop of Yardang landforms, they used binoculars to observe three white circles on the Gobi Desert about five kilometers away.

The white circles were about 20 meters in diameter, with a cross in the middle. The distance between the white circles was about 300 meters. Even if the rockets at that time were made very well, they were far less accurate than our rockets decades later. There was no need for one rocket per target. Each vehicle could aim at a target, since the dispersion would be large enough to be easily distinguishable.

The comrades had never seen a "rocket" that could accurately hit the center of the cross-shaped target cloth, otherwise they would have definitely tried it one target at a time.

With a whooshing sound, plumes of grayish-white smoke rose around the three white circles, followed by the sounds of explosions reaching the comrades' ears. "Hit! Hit!" Although none of the rockets hit the center of the white circles directly, and the best ones only grazed the edges, the comrades cheered with joy.

Those rings are only about twenty meters in diameter. If they could hit directly, this thing wouldn't be called a rocket launcher; it should be called a missile.

Gao Zhendong: That's not necessarily true.

Regardless of what the rocket artillery will look like in the future, the experienced rangers can roughly predict that the dispersion of these rockets is excellent.

"Laser rangefinder, rangefinder, rangefinder!" a leader called to his comrades. The distance between the center of each target and the rangefinder had already been determined. Once the distance between each impact point and the rangefinder was measured, the dispersion of each bullet could be calculated directly on the computer.

At the same time, he picked up the radio: "Report to the test center, all 12 rounds hit the target area, the dispersion is good, and the specific data is being calculated."

The test center, which is the launch site, was completely reassured after hearing his words.

If all 12 bullets landed in the target area, the result shouldn't be too bad.

The comrades from the Land Armor Bureau were all smiles. With this weapon's range, as long as all the rounds hit the target area and there were no stray rounds, even if the dispersion didn't meet the target, it would still be enough for long-range suppression.

What's more, this thing also has a killer weapon—terminal-guided munitions.

Given the characteristics of terminally guided munitions, they don't need to have a very good dispersion at all!

The comrades were all anxiously waiting for the comrades at the firing range to calculate the circular error probability.

It felt like a long time had passed, but in reality it was less than ten minutes before the voices of the comrades at the shooting range came through the radio.

"Circular error probability 153 meters, average longitudinal error 246 meters!"

If Gao Zhendong were here, it would be a bit of a shame; it still falls short compared to the BM-30 Tornado. After all, the technological conditions at that time were still limited, and even with the same technological approach, the results would differ greatly.

But the comrades had a completely different reaction.

"So accurate!"

"This error is almost as bad as that of a cannon barrel."

"Barreled artillery doesn't have this range. If it did, even if it deviated a little more, I would still praise how beautifully it veered in the air."

"If you fill it with fragmentation or terminally guided munitions, and scatter them like a shower of petals, the margin of error will be almost the same as a direct hit!"

It can eliminate both the most common soft targets, personnel, and the most difficult hard targets, tanks and armored vehicles, as well as cluster munitions and terminally guided munitions.

As for other target types, this spread is also effective, perfect!
The data that Gao Zhendong might find regrettable was seen as wonderful by his comrades.

"Congratulations! From now on, you will have rocket launchers with a range of 75 kilometers and accuracy comparable to artillery!" The chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Commission congratulated the comrades of the Land Equipment Bureau with great joy.

The comrade from the Army Equipment Bureau smiled and said, "Congratulations, congratulations! We still have to thank the comrades in the defense industry system for bringing us such good equipment."

With this, you don't even need many—just three or five—to easily deliver a devastating blow to enemies deep in the enemy's territory.

Enemies deep in the rear are usually in a state of rest and training, and generally do not have very good protection; neatly arranged tents are probably the best they can manage. This makes them ideal targets for high-explosive fragmentation submunitions.

Moreover, the depth of the 270 Fire Eye is much deeper than any enemy imagined!

75 kilometers—the enemy never dreamed we could reach that distance, and even hit it accurately!
As they were laughing, the comrades from the Army Equipment Bureau suddenly had tears in their eyes.

"75 kilometers, 75 kilometers... We never dreamed of this. If only this had existed more than ten years ago..."

It's important to understand that when we first started developing large-caliber rocket artillery, the range was only about 10 kilometers. Not to mention comparing it to the 270mm and 130mm long rockets, even the officially finalized 130mm short rockets and 107mm rockets would laugh at its range.

The chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Committee said, "It didn't exist back then, that's an objective fact. The conditions were what they were, but our soldiers still managed to drive the enemy back under those conditions. Besides, wasn't this long-range 270mm rocket launcher also developed under the leadership of the soldiers who participated in the battle at that time?"

Anyone present who knew Gao Zhendong knew that he came from that battlefield and, after joining the local construction work, he had been dedicated to the research of weapons and equipment.

Speaking of this, the comrades from the Army Equipment Bureau are not so sad. Yes, our conditions were indeed difficult at the time, but after we achieved a hard-won victory, we did not stop. We maintained our strengths and worked hard to make up for our weaknesses. Moreover, our veteran infantrymen played a pivotal role in this.

"Hey, speaking of Comrade Gao Zhendong, why didn't he come this time?" a comrade from the Army Equipment Bureau asked. This cannon was almost entirely driven by Comrade Gao Zhendong, who made a huge contribution to its planning and specific technology. The fact that he wasn't seen at the firing range at the start of the final test was a great pity for the comrades from the Army Equipment Bureau.

“He has a job and is very busy. It’s a bit far from here, so we won’t bother him,” the chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Committee said with a smile.

He knew very well that Gao Zhendong was very busy. He even knew that Gao Zhendong was leading the 11th... no, the comrades of the Ministry of Machinery Industry, to work on new engines, automobiles, and many other things.

Thinking of this, he turned his gaze to the few CA-10s that were moving a little unsteadily. Perhaps one day, these hardworking iron oxen would return to their original posts, instead of being forced to perform tasks that were not their responsibility.

"Alright, the first step has been successful. Next, we will conduct comprehensive testing and strive to enter the small-batch trial production stage within six months!" the chief engineer of the National Defense Industry Committee said with a smile.

The basic performance has been determined so far, but a series of tests are still needed for this new equipment, including tests on various types of ammunition, in various environments, and at various ranges.

Unfortunately, the territory is vast and the operating environment is complex. If these tasks aren't handled properly, the enemy might be wiped out in a different environment. A word of advice to countries that need to purchase weapons from abroad is that when unsure which supplier to buy, it's best to buy from the major powers. Their weapons are inherently more adaptable than the assembled weapons from smaller, less populated countries. You can't tell anything by just looking at specifications or price.

However, it's hard to say about some "great powers." For example, the United States, which once dominated the world, had a gas turbine that broke down in the tropics, and there was no way to complain about it.

Hearing the chief engineer's words, the comrades responded enthusiastically. With this good start, they were not afraid of any difficulties that might arise later.

(End of this chapter)